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Des Moines
One of the best heavy cruisers in the world. The ship was designed using the experience gained in World War II, resulting in excellent protection and very powerful AA armament. The key distinctive feature of cruisers of this type was auto-loading main guns that had a very high rate of fire. The third ship of the class, USS Salem, is now preserved as a military museum ship in Quincy, Massachusetts. Pros: * Rapid reload speed allows one to quickly switch ammo types to adapt to any situation. * Unrivaled rate of fire for a heavy cruiser at her tier * Very effective against destroyers and cruisers at close to medium range, can give battleships something to be wary of, and fend off aerial assaults * AA suite with all range upgrades can reach out to 7.2km. * The best cruiser AA escort in the game with 426 AA DPS at 5.0km. * Reasonably protected when bow on towards your enemies, however battleships can still injure you greatly if their shells hit you with good RNG dispersion. * Gun layout and high shell arc allows one to sit behind an island and lob shells over it to harass far away enemies, while being partially covered by the island. * High shell arc also allows for consistent citadel hits on other cruisers from long range due to plunging fire, if you can hit them! * Jack of all trades * Surprising AP shell potency; the cruiser can basically fire her AP shells even against a battleship when the situation calls for it Cons: * Outclassed and outgunned by every other tier 10 cruiser at long range except for the Minotaur * Main guns are very vulnerable and easy to destroy, especially when you're bow on towards your enemies. * Slower shell velocity means arc is rather high which makes shells take a bit long to reach the target point but can reach over islands * Rather sluggish acceleration and deceleration, feels like sailing in a battleship * Armor is thick enough to prevent AP shells from over penetration * Since most islands are not that tall, the overly high shell arc is a backfire * High shell arc still cannot pass over some tall island * With or without IFHE, her HE shells still having hard time when dealing with some Battleships' super structure * HE shells does not dealt much damage even when penetrated * HE shells are not good as IJN cruiser while AP shells are not good as KMs cruiser * Very difficult to hit a target which is 10km away * Her AA advantage is not permanent, as these AA guns can be destroyed by enemy fire * Her AA advantage is only useful when there is a Carrier in the matchmaking, therefore her AA guns is practically useless if there is no Carrier in game * No torpedoes like Moskva ( but Moskva has better health pool, healing, guns arc, fire chance, armor and radar range than Des Moines), therefore close range with any cruiser is very risky * Overly rely on terrain advantage such as island to hide her presence, therefore maps with open sea such as Ocean is the worst situation for Des Moines * Large citadel for a US cruiser. * Despite the AP having the strongest penetration value in the game, getting up close is the most effective way to deal guaranteed damage * Fairly easy to detect Category:U.S.A. Category:Cruisers